Arraigo Familiar in Spain: A Complete Guide

You may have heard how being the son/daughter or father/mother of a Spanish citizen can grant you the residency in Spain, easily. And that is completely true. The legal procedure that enables you to do that is called arraigo familiar. And in this article we will discover everything related to it: to whom exactly it does apply, requirements, documents, and application procedure. Are you ready?

What exactly is the Arraigo Familiar procedure?

The arraigo familiar is one of the three residence authorizations inside the group of those conceded due to exceptional circumstances. The other two paths we find inside that group are the arraigo social and the arraigo laboral.

In this case, we are talking about an authorization that allows you to live and work in Spain for a whole year.

After that first year is finished, you have the possibility to renew your authorization. Well, technically you can’t renew it. What you do is to modify it; as you will jump to an ordinary residence authorization (we will talk about the renewal process later on).

The important thing is that the arraigo familiar process carries within awork permit. This work permit can be both as a self-employed individual or as an employee.

Hence, you are allowed to open your own company and work as a freelance professional or find a job and work for a company.

Who can apply for it?

Let’s now move to the most crucial question here: who can actually benefit from the arraigo familiar procedure?

There are are two groups of foreigners who can:

The father or mother of a Spanish child (born in Spain) who is less than 18 years old. In this group, parents of children who are from the European Union would also be eligible for arraigo. That means that no matter if you are the parent of a Spanish, Italian or French kid, you can get your arraigo familiar in Spain.

Children of Spanish citizens by origin. This refers to those foreign citizens who are direct descendants of Spanish individuals who got their nationality due to the historical memory law or because they were children of Spanish citizens themselves.

But wait for a second. Maybe we should clarify something here that will help you define if you are inside any of the two groups. Who exactly are Spanish citizens by origin?